When the Day Met the Night
by Akimi Kono
Summary: AU. Gabriel meets a girl who saves his life without even doing anything. He finds that he's better with her, but there are some hitches in their relationship. He's afraid for himself if they break up, and she's afraid for him too. Sometimes you have to be your own savior and not depend on others to save you.


**A/N: **I actually had this story started like back in August but I just got around to doing something with it now. Sorry for starting another new story, but idk w/e. I hope you guys like it. I don't know how often I'll be updating/writing for this story, though.

**Disclaimer: **SPN, characters, etc etc don't belong to me. Only my OCs do. I apologize in advance if I don't accurately portray anyone with the conditions or disabilities in this story. Unbeta'd, so all mistakes are mine.

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In all honesty, there was nothing about her that he didn't like. Of course, he might have been a bit biased since she was the one who saved his life. In a way. She hadn't pulled him out of the way of a two-ton truck, or talked him off a ledge, but she had saved his life all the same. In fact, she hadn't done really anything. She had just _been_ there. On the other side of the street at a cafe, sitting in a wire chair, sipping from a white ceramic mug and relaxing in the shade of an umbrella. But the moment he saw her, he knew. He was in love with her. He didn't know how or when, but he would be with her. There was no way he could just see a girl like that and carry on with his sad pathetic life alone. Nope. No way.

He rushed across the street, forcing himself to smile as he approached the table. She had both hands on her mug and was scanning a book in front of her on the table. At the sound of footsteps so close, she looked up, her eyes shining despite the shade. She blinked twice and returned the smile, setting her cup down.

"Hi."

"Hi," he said back, breathless. He could blame it on the run across the street, but he knew it was because of her. He swallowed and grinned at her. She smiled back a bit uneasily in the silence as he stared her down. Finally something clicked and he stumbled over himself with an introduction. "Oh! Uh, hi. Ha, sorry. I'm, uh … I'm Gabriel."

"I'm Luna."

"Luna? Wow, that's a... that's an uncommon name. Were you named after someone?"

"No. Not that I know of. I did get my middle name from my aunt, though."

"Oh, what's that?"

"Belle."

"Luna Belle?"

"Yes."

"Beautiful Moon? That's your name?"

She blushed a shade of red he'd never seen on a person before and nodded. "Yeah..." She let out an embarrassed laugh. "It sounds kinda silly when you say it like that."

"No, no, it's fine. It's … a good name." It fit her perfectly. She _was _very beautiful, and her eyes were about the size of the moon and they were concentrated right on him. She looked at him shyly and bit her bottom lip.

"What's your middle name?"

"What?"

"Yeah. I told you mine, now what's yours?"

"Oh. It's not as nice as Belle."

"What is it?"

"...Samson."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

She grinned at him, "That's great! I've never met a Samson."

"Well it's my middle name, so …"

"Gabriel Samson. That's pretty neat. What does it mean?"

"My name?"

"Yeah. You said mine means 'beautiful moon', so what does yours mean?"

"Well Gabriel means 'strong man of God' and Samson means 'sun'."

"Hmm..."

"What?"

"I'm trying to fit those two together. Uhm..." she bit her lip again and narrowed her hazel eyes. "Ah, I guess … strong sun-man … man-sun.. Sounds like I'm calling you a weird man-kid hybrid. Wait... is that a teenager? Sorry, uh... strong sun of … uhm... Wow, this is harder than I thought."

He laughed lightly, "It's all right, you don't need to -"

"No, I want to. I just … let me think for a bit. I'll figure it out eventually..." She gripped her mug and stared intently into it. Finally she looked up at him, "Go ahead and sit down, this may take a while."

Gabriel's heart fluttered as he took the metal seat across from her and watched as she thought deeply. Her head nodded slightly as she murmured to herself, trying to combine his names into something reasonable and sensible.

"Ay, strong man of God and the sun...? Strong .. sun god? Ha, you're Apollo now. Alright, ahhh... Hmm.. well we can drop some things off."

"Like what?"

"Well honestly, I think 'strong man' is pretty good on its own. That's a good thing to be called. It's... well it's a strong name. I guess. Oh. Well..."

"Huh?"

"You look like a strong man... And, well..." she blushed again and fiddled with her fingers, "your eyes are a lot like the sun, I guess..."

He stared at her, his eyes gleaming gold in the afternoon light. She was captivated by them but looked away, shy and unsure of herself.

"Well you match the moon, then," he stated suddenly.

"How?"

"Your clothes."

She looked down at her powder blue dress and silver cardigan. "Oh. Okay, so … I guess … then … uhm," she looked up and shrugged loosely, "I guess we're the sun and the moon." When he smiled at her, she added, "Or something, I dunno."

"No, I think you're right. We're …" he paused too and they shared a moment of silence, staring at each other. Luna gripped her mug in her hands and Gabriel balled his hands into fists. Was there such a thing as love at first sight? Surely there was. He was convinced that he loved her, and now that he actually talked to her, he was sure that he was going to marry her. Maybe not today, or tomorrow, but perhaps the day after that. He had to. She was perfect. She was the moon to his sun. Although, really, it seemed that their roles were opposite; she was so warm and loving, and he was so quiet and reserved. He was so sad and she radiated joy. He envied her a bit, but hoped that maybe if he was around her long enough, he'd be able to soak up some of her energy.

"So what's your last name?" he asked her.

She shook her head playfully, "No, I told you two of my names already. You don't get to know my last name. I don't want you to steal my identity or something."

He gave a look of disbelief. "What? I'm … you're like .. what? 19? I hardly think I can pass as a Luna Belle whatever-your-last-name-is."

"So? You could still try."

"Well then, you don't get to know _my_ last name."

"Fine."

"Fine."

Another moment of silence passed and Luna looked down at her nearly empty cup. "Uhm, well. I have an appointment soon, and I should get going."

Gabriel was snapped out of his fantasy and back to reality. He stuttered, realizing that he wasn't going to magically win her affections by sitting in stoic silence. "O-Oh, okay. Well then … it was, uhm, it was nice. Nice to meet you, Luna. I'll … I will – I can … do you need help?"

She cast a confused look his way. "With what?"

"Uuhhh, carrying your things?"

"No, I can get it. I just have a bag and a book."

"Those can be heavy."

She smiled, "They're not."

"Okay." He cursed himself mentally as she stood, pulling out her wallet and leaving a five dollar bill on the metal table. She put her wallet away, slung her bag over her shoulder and collected her book in her arms.

"It was nice meeting you too, Gabriel."

He stood suddenly, causing the chair to scrape along the sidewalk and the cup to rattle on the tabletop. It startled Luna and she took a step back, clutching her book to her chest.

"Will I see you again? I mean, can I? Would you like to … well … I dunno."

She stared at him with her round eyes, full lips pressed together tightly. She opened her mouth, making a "tsk" sound, "Did you want to?"

"Want to see you?"

"Yes."

"Yes."

"Uhmmm..." she looked down, scanning the sidewalk for an invisible date planner. "I think I'm free on … Friday. No, wait, I have something that day. Saturday?" He didn't respond, thinking she was still debating with herself. She looked up when he said nothing and asked again, "Saturday?"

"Oh, yeah, sure."

"Are you free that day?"

"I'm free every day."

"Really? Don't you have a job?"

"Oh yeah I do." He blushed hotly and she laughed softly. "But I'm free Saturday. It's my day off."

"Okay. Awesome. It's actually my only day off in a while, so I guess it's good timing."

Gabriel sang mental praises and gave a curt nod, "Yeah, great timing I guess. Must be serendipity."

The corner of Luna's lips turned up, "I like that movie."

He was caught in a moment of confusion but had no time to figure out what she meant because she stepped forward, grabbed his hand, turned it over and, extracting a pen from the vastness of her patchwork shoulder bag, scribbled down her phone number. Her palm was warm and smooth against the back of his hand. Her fingers lingered for a bit after she finished writing, then she pulled away and dropped the pen back into the bag.

"Call me later and we'll make a date."

He nodded dumbly, staring at her. Her eyes glinted happily, framed by her blunt straight-across bangs. Thin strands of hair, short and curly, were loose around her ears and at her neck. She smiled at him, feeling adrenaline rush through her body.

"Okay, bye," she spat out, turning on her heels and speeding off down the sidewalk. Gabriel held his breath as he watched after her, hips swaying and messy bun bouncing. His heart felt so light, so high in his chest. He could feel his heartbeat in his throat and his head was pounding. He felt lightheaded. There was something else he felt too, but he couldn't quite place it. It was something familiar but distant. Something he didn't quite recognize immediately because it seemed almost foreign to him. What was it? He felt … safe. That was it. Finally. For the first time in a long time, he felt safe.


End file.
